Peter Olds
by George J. Dance Peter Olds (born 1944) is a New Zealand poet. The New Zealand Book Council notes that "his influence on younger New Zealand poets particularly in the 1970s was of considerable significance." Life Olds was born in Christchurch. He was educated at Seddon Memorial Tech in Auckland. He dropped out of school at 15, and worked in a variety of menial jobs. He settled in Dunedin in the mid-1960s, and began attempting songwriting. He switched to poetry after meeting James K. Baxter, and after hospitalization following a 1968 nervous breakdown lived in Baxter's Jerusalem commune.Peter Olds, New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre. Web, Apr. 6, 2014. Returning to Dunedin, Olds met Trevor Reeves, and published several collections, chapbooks, and broadsides through Reeves's Caveman Press during the 1970's.Olds, Peter, Aotearoa New Zealand Poetry Sound Archive, November 16, 2007. Blogspot, Web, Apr. 6, 2014. He was the Robert Burns Fellow at the University of Otago in 1978.Peter Olds - An Update, An Angel @ My Blog, October 16, 2011. Blogspot, Web, Apr. 6, 2014. His poetry has been anthologized in The Penguin Book of New Zealand Verse, An Anthology of New Zealand Poetry in English (Oxford University Press) Big Smoke (Auckland University Press) and Best New Zealand Poems 2001 (IIML). Recognition In 2005, Olds was a co-winner of the inaugural Janet Frame Literary Awards.Olds, Peter, New Zealand Book Council, Web, Apr. 6, 2014. Publications *''Exit: Two poems''. Dunedin, NZ: John McIndoe, 1971. *''In Auckland''. Dunedin, NZ: John McIndoe, 1971. *''2 V8 Poems''. Dunedin, NZ: John McIndoe, 1971. *''Schizophrenic Highway''. Dunedin, NZ: Montgomery Publications, 1972. *''Lady Moss Revived: Poems (from MX Collection 69-72). Dunedin, NZ: Caveman Press, 1972. *''4 V8 Poems. Dunedin, NZ: Caveman Press, 1972. *''The Habits You Left Behind: Poem''. Dunedin, NZ: Caveman Press, 1972. *''The Snow and the Glass Window''. Dunedin, NZ: Caveman Press, 1973. *''Freeway''. Dunedin, NZ: Caveman Press, 1974. *''4 Poems''. Dunedin, NZ: SBS, 1974. *''Doctor's Rock''. Dunedin, NZ: Caveman Press, 1976. *''Beethoven's Guitar''. Dunedin, NZ: Caveman Press, 1980. *''After Looking for Broadway''. Christchurch, NZ: One Eyed Press, 1985. *''Music Therapy: Poems''. Paekakariki, NZ: Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop, 2001. *''"Oh, Baxter is Everywhere": Some Dunedin poems''. Dunedin, NZ: Square One Press, 2003. *''"It Was a Tuesday Morning": Selected poems, 1972-2001''. Christchurch, NZ: Hazard Press, 2004. *''Poetry Reading at Kaka Point''. Wellington: Steele Roberts, 2006. *''The Mad Elephant''. Paekakariki, NZ: Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop, 2006. *''Reaching for the Baxters''. Paekakariki, NZ: Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop, 2007. *''In the Dragon Cafe''. Dunedin, NZ: Kilmog Press, 2007. *''Graffiti''. Paekakariki, NZ: Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop, 2008. *''From the Slopes of Golgotha''. Dunedin, NZ: Kilmog Press, 2009. *''Ballad of the Last Cold Pie''. Lyttelton, NZ: Cold Hub Press, 2010. *''Skew Whiff''. Dunedin, NZ: Otakou Press, 2011. *''Under the Dundas Street Bridge''. Wellington: Steele Roberts, 2012. *''Journey to the Far South, and other poems'' (woodcuts by Wayne Seyb). Lyttelton, NZ: Cold Hub Press, 2012. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Peter Olds, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Apr. 6, 2014. See also *List of New Zealand poets References Notes External links ;Poems *Peter Olds at the New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre (5 poems) ;Audio / video *Olds, Peter at the Aotearoa New Zealand Sound Archive ;Books *Peter Olds at Amazon.com *Peter Olds at the New Zealand Literature File ;About *Olds, Peter at the New Zealand Book Council Category:20th-century poets Category:21st-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:New Zealand poets Category:Poets Category:People from Christchurch